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My astrologer continues to reassure me that Games Workshop has chosen the proper amount of units to produce for Space Hulk. I would like anyone who disagrees to demonstrate that they are better qualified than my astrologer to judge the situation.

In addition to some of the other comments made, it is better business sense to create a sense of urgency and thereby sell 100,000 in 6 months than to have an unlimited run and sell that number in 12-18 months as the machines, storage space, and various other things can be used for other products. Plus, by getting the cash in quicker, you can reinvest that cash and make up what you have lost by having lower total sales.

Lower total profits on an item, but in a much quicker turnover time is a good thing, at least on some product ranges.

This is just a marketing tactic; you say a product is being sold out before hand to get more people interested in buying it before it "sells" out.

Do you think they would have sold more or less if they had dropped the mystery box crud and just prmoted he game itself for all those months?

Aduro wrote:Do you think they would have sold more or less if they had dropped the mystery box crud and just prmoted he game itself for all those months?

Much less. People are idiotic predictable sheep.

Aduro wrote:Do you think they would have sold more or less if they had dropped the mystery box crud and just prmoted he game itself for all those months?

Without the Mystery Box, they wouldn't have sold a single copy.

But thanks to the Mystery Box, GW is on track to sell out.

The Mystery Box is a clear marketing triumph.

Dude it was the mystery box.

It would indeed be cheaper for them to mass produce then produce a small amount. The amount of effort put into model production and the tokens and maps would not make up for itself if they didn't make enough copies to pull a rather good profit. May not know GW but I know business. There's no way they're making a loss on this product. My LGS is getting 20 copies and only 3 of them are reserved... I'm thinking of getting one just to throw in the closet for a few years then dust it off and try to get a good profit off of it... problem is, I had never even heard of Space Hulk until this release...

I will admit that after playing it it is quite a bit of fun. A LGS has a copy and we've been playing for a while. The game models are awesome and it plays really nicely... although I'm not too good at it, have to really learn the game to do well. At 100 dollars it's already probably way above production value though.

Tacobake wrote:Dude it was the mystery box.

Totally the mystery box ; now all we need to hope for is that GW execs see this success and this is a once a year deal.


Next year NECROMUNDA.

All I know is I really want one, but money is tight right now, and I dont have a spare benjamin lying around, so if they sell out before I can get a little saved, I'm burnt, and that is 1 copy they didn't sell, and 1 unhappy customer.

Now ask yourself if I am an isolated case. Do you really think in this economy, that even wargamers have $100 dollars to spend on their hobby, all at once? Maybe 10k of them do, and the limited run will be considered a "success.", but what about the 10-20k that don't, but really wanted one, and just waited too long to decide it was more important than food? Is it really a success in that perspective?

Or who knows, maybe only exactly 10k people want space hulk, so it will be a masterful move on GWs part. Anything is possible I guess.

75k made, and if GW is 75% sold out, that's 55k sold.

If they do end up selling out by the 5th, there will still be copies floating around awhile. While some stores are sold out, some of us are ordering to keep them in stock for a while.

Kid_Kyoto wrote:While the prodcution and transport costs are non-trivial, the marketing and development costs (not to mention overhead and equipement) are fixed. They do not go up by increasing the print run.

Capping the print run at 100k regardless of demand is silly, if the market can bear 150k or 200k why not sell that number?

Someone in this thread stayed awake during business class (or would it just be common sense class?). They sunk the cost into design, testing and mold production. The cost of ink, paper and plastic is ridiculously low compared to that. If they ran another 100k and only sold 10%, it would still produce profit (and since no one knows how 'limited' a release it is, they can without raising the ire of the loving consumers).

And, by the way, I think Danny Internets has correctly predicted how Space Hulk will be released over the coming year.

Kid_Kyoto wrote:It means they didn't make enough of them and will lose sales

Sorry, just trying to look at the dark side of life.

QUICK! Time for a price increase!

Canonness Rory wrote:
Now ask yourself if I am an isolated case. Do you really think in this economy, that even wargamers have $100 dollars to spend on their hobby, all at once? Maybe 10k of them do, and the limited run will be considered a "success.", but what about the 10-20k that don't, but really wanted one, and just waited too long to decide it was more important than food? Is it really a success in that perspective?

It's OK. I'm going to buy 3 or 4 copies so all those people that can't afford it don't matter. They can buy it off me for twice as much in a year.

Hmm..great marketing ploy full stop.

Consider how many are buying for the minis and not the game. The moulds are still there (if not the CAD modelling is)so how easy would it be to produce sprues at some later point.

I want Space Hulk, there are an overwhelming number who wanted 40k minis

Let's all just rest assured that GW is clever enough to have developed, maintained and consitently improved several, comparatively, mass market games systems and miniatures lines for the last 20+ years. Whatever their strategy is with Space Hulk I'm sure that those who want to play it will enjoy it and those that don't want to will contiune to enjoy their chosen system.

A knowingly limited run of a product is likely to be based upon an educated estimation its potential market thus maximising profits by not having any dead stock left on shelves. If they are going to sell out then the strategy was a success.

Also, from this exercise, they are going to know how many more units the market can sustain by the level of over-orders for the product. They can then accurately assess the profitability of the release of a second run at a significantly cheaper fixed/start-up cost because all of the machinery, toolings and moulds are in place. No doubt the list price for the box will be the same, this = profit!!

Personnally I'm a big fan of GW and I hope they continue to do what they do for the next 20 years and beyond but I won't be buying it because I'm building a 40k army and that's taking my spare money at the mo. I always preferred Blood Bowl to Space Hulk anyway.

Congratulations to those buying or ordering it.
I'll not consider buying one.

Fearspect wrote:

Kid_Kyoto wrote:While the prodcution and transport costs are non-trivial, the marketing and development costs (not to mention overhead and equipement) are fixed. They do not go up by increasing the print run.

Capping the print run at 100k regardless of demand is silly, if the market can bear 150k or 200k why not sell that number?

Someone in this thread stayed awake during business class (or would it just be common sense class?). They sunk the cost into design, testing and mold production. The cost of ink, paper and plastic is ridiculously low compared to that. If they ran another 100k and only sold 10%, it would still produce profit (and since no one knows how 'limited' a release it is, they can without raising the ire of the loving consumers).

Hmm, you however, seemed to have slept right through business class. The profit from that 10% would be completely devoured by the money drained away through the 90k units that sit around unsold.

Bookwrack wrote:

Fearspect wrote:

Kid_Kyoto wrote:While the prodcution and transport costs are non-trivial, the marketing and development costs (not to mention overhead and equipement) are fixed. They do not go up by increasing the print run.

Capping the print run at 100k regardless of demand is silly, if the market can bear 150k or 200k why not sell that number?

Someone in this thread stayed awake during business class (or would it just be common sense class?). They sunk the cost into design, testing and mold production. The cost of ink, paper and plastic is ridiculously low compared to that. If they ran another 100k and only sold 10%, it would still produce profit (and since no one knows how 'limited' a release it is, they can without raising the ire of the loving consumers).

Hmm, you however, seemed to have slept right through business class. The profit from that 10% would be completely devoured by the money drained away through the 90k units that sit around unsold.

Exactly.

Producing 3 times as many means the game sells much slower as there is no sense of urgency to purchase, which means you far more than treble your storage costs.

Additionally, although they will probably make slightly smaller margins this way, and also smaller total profit, that profit will be made far quicker and be available for reinvestment far sooner, giving GW a very quick cash injection to use on other products.

There is a clear and viable strategy here. It may not work, but it is a viable strategy if they pull it off.

I suspect, if it does work, Warhammer Quest will be next, followed, as predicted above, by Necromunda.

Storage costs? Do you mean the giant warehouse they still own and have freed up a lot of space by:

1) Not keeping separate bits for bits orders anymore.

2) Melting down and destroying 'older' kits.

Fearspect wrote:Storage costs? Do you mean the giant warehouse they still own and have freed up a lot of space by:

1) Not keeping separate bits for bits orders anymore.

2) Melting down and destroying 'older' kits.

It still costs money.

If GW does a second print run, they'll do somethign to ensure that the first print run is 'special'. You know, like take out the hour glass and then sell it for $5 plus shipping.

Gosh.

There is a fixed sale cost and a fixed supply. If the demand is higher than this amount, there will be an economic loss.

They don't have to make 100k more. They could make 1k more, or 10k or 50k.

I see people like to argue a lot online, it just causes me to vibrate a little when people are wrong on the internet.

Since they have not announced how many will be made, and it is already clear they will come close to (or actually) selling their stock out with nothing reaching stores. They can continue to produce while saying 'limited print, lol' and no one will be the wiser.

Not making money when you could have 'costs money'.

dietrich wrote:If GW does a second print run, they'll do somethign to ensure that the first print run is 'special'. You know, like take out the hour glass and then sell it for $5 plus shipping.

Maybe it'll be a different color of sand...

Fearspect wrote:Gosh.

There is a fixed sale cost and a fixed supply. If the demand is higher than this amount, there will be an economic loss.

They don't have to make 100k more. They could make 1k more, or 10k or 50k.

I see people like to argue a lot online, it just causes me to vibrate a little when people are wrong on the internet.

Since they have not announced how many will be made, and it is already clear they will come close to (or actually) selling their stock out with nothing reaching stores. They can continue to produce while saying 'limited print, lol' and no one will be the wiser.

Not making money when you could have 'costs money'.

Wrong on many accounts, should I be vibrating?

Print run was set back in January, they made 75k. Strangely, it's a lot easier to make the call of increasing a print run when it's about to sell out, than it was back at the first of the year. Amazing how many experts there are on the internet.

They cannot 'continue to produce' the product. Printing was outsourced to 4 different printers, and models made by GW in the UK, all shipped to one warehouse to put it together and package it up, then shipped out all around the world.

They don't have a big STC that produces space hulk on command. They can't just push a button and make more. Doing another print run involves contracts with outside parties, and getting the components produced. It's certainly possible for them to make another run, but not in under 6 months time. I think we all might notice a bit when another 50k in copies suddenly hit the market after being sold out for 6 months. Space Hulk is a board game, and like many board games, is produced in finite amounts, which sell out, and then more get made. Maybe GW will make more, maybe they won't. If I was them, I'd certainly wait and see what the actual sell through is on the first batch before sending out orders for another.

Where you get the idea that they will sell out with none reaching stores is sort of funny. Should I not count the 80 copies I'll be unpacking next week? GW may not have them in their shops, but many other stores bought extra to have this in stock through at least Christmas. If I underordered and sell out in a day.. ...then it's a good day, no gnashing of teeth over "OH, I could have ordered more, I lost money!?!"

mikhaila wrote:hey don't have a big STC that produces space hulk on command. They can't just push a button and make more.

WHY NOT!

The only way Space Hulk will make it through X-mas is through the power of Ebay.

Fifty wrote:


I suspect, if it does work, Warhammer Quest will be next, followed, as predicted above, by Necromunda.

Gorkamorka is next.

I'm not worried, mihaila, about local gaming stores. They tend to do fine by carrying other products than just GW. I would like to see GW do better. I think they make great games and they are, sadly, on a huge decline. Less and less people showing up for tournaments, less tournaments in general, pulling back services they used to provide (bitz orders, GW Canada), etc.